much. thanks, carol. still to come in the newsroom, donald sterling s fight is on again, and the clippers sale is off again. cnn s jean casarez has the latest turn of events. good morning, jean. reporter: carol, it just came out. a statement, donald sterling in lieu of his attorney saying the team is not for sale. so what does this mean? donald sterling is saying to the nba, we ll see you in court. we ll have it, next. life with crohn s disease or ulcerative colitis
unfair to the clippers players and coaches who have to deal with this distraction in the middle of their own highly competitive play-off series. reporter: the nba commissioner will not discuss any possible sanctions, saying that sterling deserves due process. some fans have called for a boycott of clippers games, but others say that the players should not be punished. alex? yeah. okay, joe, i know they re not saying what they want to do yet, but in terms of the true recourse, what the nba has at its hands, could it legally force sterling to sell his ownership of the clippers, or not? reporter: that isn t clear at this time. certainly nba ownership groups do have a lot of power over what happens. again, the commissioner is not commenting on that sort of thing. we know there s some press tent in the past in other major league press, one suspended with the cincinnati reds. but the commissioner is not going into detail about what the possible sanctions could be.
know they re working very hard right now to do, they do have options. there are press dents of owners being suspended by leagues. they ve been fined over the years for all sorts of infractions. the league certainly could look to suspend sterling, to take him out of all the day-to-day management of the team. he s not attending the game today in golden state. they could tell him not to attend any games over a period of time. those are all options they have. they could certainly pressure him to sell the team, to force an owner to sell a team is a different and slightly more complicated thing, because at the end of the day, this is their property. this is private property. and so forcing is not easy to do, but pressuring is certainly something that they could do, to have him out of the nba family. yeah. talk about pressure. the timing of this, rob, it is coming during play-off season. let s take a listen to adam a silver.
sterling s racist remarks he allegedly made. the clippers have issued a statement in part saying, we have heard the tape on tmz. we do not know if it is legitimate or it has been altered. it also says, quote, mr. sterling is emphatic that what is reflected on that recording is not consistent with, nor does it reflect his views, beliefs or feelings. it is the antithesis of who he is and what he believes. he feels terrible sentments are being attributed to him. joining me now, jason johnson. and political strategist, angela rye. welcome to you both. i m sure this is going to be an interesting conversation. i do want to talk about this in big picture context. but before i do, what was your reaction when you saw and heard this story? i should add, nbc has not authenticated this voice on the tape. but jason, what did you think? it almost made me chuckle. because it just lays bare a
the coach said many people in the area support the idea and points out all atf rules will apply. at the height of the nba play-offs, it is an off-the-court controversy that is stealing the spotlight. the clippers tip off against golden state, but donald sterling is not expected to be in attendance. this is the nba investigation audio recording of racist comments allegedly made by sterling. nbc has not verified the audio recording in question. the l.a. clippers say the recording does not reflect sterling s views, beliefs or feelings. hey, rob, good to see you. alex, nice to see you. let s talk about sterling s record. because this, if it is his, and he owns this, it does not appear to be an isolated incident. put this latest controversy into perspective for us. well, alex, there is a